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      ms.hughesteachesenglish

      I'm an English teacher living in Burlington, Vermont.

      ms.hughesteachesenglish's collections

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      Motifs in August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean (DRAFT/WIP)

      <p>My unit focuses on an exploration of motifs in August Wilson’s play Gem of the Ocean. Chronologically first in Wilson’s “Century Cycle”-- a series of ten plays each meant to represent a decade of African-American life in the 20th century, Gem of the Ocean is set in 1904 Pittsburgh. However, the play examines also history, legacy, and ancestral/family trauma through a metaphysical journey back to the Maafa or Middle Passage.</p> <p>Wilson develops his meaning through a variety of dramatic motifs-- especially fire, water, the stars, quilts, and walking sticks. While my students will track these motifs throughout the play in order to develop arguments about how each contributes to  and complicates the meaning of the work as a whole, this Learning Lab collection will collect images related to these motifs to engage students in a “close-reading” of visual text to provoke initial understanding of their power as symbols.</p> <p><br>NOTE: I have also included some additional images that I would add as resources and points of discussion for my daily GoogleSide decks on the play. Some are meant to illustrate historical background relevant to specific references in the play (ex: images of Cinque and the Amistad, tintype portraits to help visualize main characters), while others act as provocations to begin discussion (the Sankofa symbols).</p>
      ms.hughesteachesenglish
      32
       
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      Rebel Without A Cause/ Fruitvale Station

      <p>This is my collection of images that connect with this film pairing,</p>
      ms.hughesteachesenglish
      43
       
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      "She had an Inside and an outside now": Pre-reading strategies for Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God"

      This lesson serves as a pre-reading/activating activity for Zora Neale Hurston's novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Ideally, it should be delivered before students have gained exposure to the text ( and before they have read a summary). In this activity, students will use VTS protocols on "Portrait of Mnonja" by Mickalene Thomas and "SOB, SOB" by Kerry James Marshall to explore themes related to the text and to anticipate Hurston’s complex characterization of Janie Crawford, the protagonist of the novel. Students will have a chance to engage with literature and anticipate Huston's style in the second half of the activity by engaging in a "Think-Pair-Share" with an out of context quotation from the novel. The student pairs will combine their literary analysis with their visual analysis to determine which quotations should be collaged with each painting, and they will have the opportunity to share out and justify their opinions. Learning Targets: 1)Students can use visual art to practice their ability to close-read and unpack 2)Students can synthesize multi-media resources to develop opinions 3)Students can use visual art to anticipate themes and characterization in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" #SAAMteach
      ms.hughesteachesenglish
      4
       
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      Winter's Bone and Creating Empathy for "Otherness" Part 1: Place, Beauty and Truth

      <p><strong><em></em></strong><strong>Rationale:</strong> This is an opening activity for a mini-unit in my Film as Dramatic Literature Class, a semester-long senior elective that meets every other day. In the unit, the students explore how  Debra Granik's film <em>Winter's Bone </em>explores the impact of environment, social class,  and gender on the coming of age of a young female protagonist, Ree Dolley (played by Jennifer Lawrence). To help the students empathize with Ree, a young woman who comes from an environment that more privileged viewers may see as ugly, brutal, and -- in the words of one reviewer-- "post apocalyptic"-- I selected several photographs that feature abandoned environments. While many feature urban spaces ,rather than <em>Winter's Bone's </em>more rural setting, they are valuable for the way they all imbue isolation or desolation with beauty and pride.</p> <p><strong>Process: </strong></p> <p>1) The students will work in groups and each group will receive a print-out of one image to work with.</p> <p>2) In these groups, the students will engage in the "Beauty and Truth" thinking routine: Where do you see beauty in these spaces? Where do you find truth? Students will use specific evidence from there thinking and make their understanding visible by recording their ideas on post-it notes on the images.</p> <p>3) We will hang the images in the classroom so that students can re-consider and continue to think about their understandings as the unit proceeds</p> <p><strong>Outcomes: </strong>Hopefully, by deliberately looking for  and reflecting on the beauty in such spaces, students can understand why the young protagonist of the film is so loyal to her struggling community.</p>
      ms.hughesteachesenglish
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